Republican Santorum wins South Carolina straw poll

Republican Rick Santorum got praise for presentation up and won a 2012 presidential straw poll of festivity activists in the vital early voting position of South Carolina, organizers said on Saturday.

Santorum, a traditional from Pennsylvania, was the only presidential applicant to be present at the South Carolina party's yearly ceremonial dinner on Friday night. He won 150 out of 408 votes cast in the presidential first choice poll of dinner attendees.

That trounced second-place finisher Mitt Romney, the previous Massachusetts governor, who established 61 votes. In third place was previous pizza manager Herman Cain with 44 votes.

Three others complete with more than 20 votes -- real estate tycoon Donald Trump with 29, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who has frequently said he will not sprint, with 22 and U.S. delegate Michelle Bachmann with 22.

Many South Carolina Republicans were upset that the party's maximum profile candidates skipped the first 2012 Republican presidential argue they sponsored on Thursday. It was attended by five minor known candidates.

Those five -- Santorum, Cain, U.S. Representative Ron Paul, previous Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty and previous New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson -- were invited to converse at the ceremonial dinner, but only Santorum showed up.

"To those who didn't arrive, you get a go by this time but you certain as hell improved come next time," Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said at the dinner.

Votes in the poll were cast for a total of 16 different potential candidates in a slow-starting and unsettled Republican nominating race that has not produced a clear front-runner.

The other candidates to register in double-digits in the poll were former U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich and previous Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee with 16 and Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels with 15.

Others who tallied single-digit totals built-in Paul with 8, Pawlenty with 7, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin with 6 and former U.S. ambassador to China Jon Huntsmann with 4